


Calaboose

by scrawly_times



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Hurt/Comfort without the Comfort, Minor Character Death, OC backstory, Other, Romance, and continued mention of dead bodies, challenge, i mean unless i get inspired to write more which is a heavy maybe, i really did not intent this to be a romantic drama i promise, idk how close the violence gets to actual tag worthy violence but, there's blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 05:19:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10802559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrawly_times/pseuds/scrawly_times
Summary: Calaboose: noun; cal·a·boose; \ˈka-lə-ˌbüs\A jail; a prisonOverwatch Writer's guild challenge fic. The subject I was given was the city of Arish, Egypt. I wrote a lot ABOUT Arish, so I hope it counts.





	Calaboose

**Author's Note:**

> This mainly centers around two OCs: Calab Cooler and Pneuma. Pneuma has little concept of gender but Calab feels he likes he/him. Calab is genderfluid, and her pronouns are a mix match of she/he/they. Meaning the pronouns he goes by change every use or so.
> 
> ...I had fun playing with a randomizer.

_Calab Cooler was so incredibly lost. He didn’t even know where she was. They’d traveled very, very far while trying to escape. She hadn’t traveled with any particular destination in mind and so had first hidden on random trains and rode as far as they could until they were discovered._

_Next had been the boats. The trains didn’t go far enough- people still followed her for what she’d done. For what the monster in his processor had done. Pneuma had first taunted and mocked her for their morals. Calab had ignored his ‘voice’ until he’d just stopped saying anything._

_Once across the seas Calab had resorted to trains again. Everywhere and anywhere she could go, they went. Anywhere where people didn’t hunt for a data frame omnic by its serial number._

_After years of going by her factory number, Calab had finally chosen a name to have_ **_something_ ** _to go by other than a number. The fact that all omnics of the same frametype without modifications looked alike was for once a boon. No one could track them now._

 _Calab did not at first believe the voice’s claims of once being human, of once having a_ **_heartbeat_** _,_ _until his memories began to leak into their processor after so long of them being bound together. Calab could_ **_feel_ ** _the strange energy running through her circuits. Like a virus turned into a poisonous, acidic liquid that numbed the the wires it passed over._

_Calab did not know if she was crazy; if Pneuma’s entire existence was just some delusion brought on by a virus affecting his processor. His entire purpose was to deal with information, data, and viruses by default. Calab could not, should not be susceptible to viruses without even being aware of it._

_However, as life continued on Pneuma’s presence became_ **_familiar_** _. Calab began to doubt she would be happy without his constant presence and conversation. But the fact was that Pneuma was… wrong. Broken, twisted, vengeful. He wanted to_ **_kill_ ** _people. Before Calab figured out how to take back control over their own body he had already killed people and Calab had been forced to run._

_Humans hated omnics. Few if any showed her any kindness in their travels. An omnic who had killed humans was flat out despised. Calab had a hard time living before she’d gotten a bounty on his head._

_But there were places. Places omnics had rarely touched during the Crisis. Places where the people looked askance but rarely attacked. Places that Calab was looking for. Places that Calab had finally found._

_As she walked through the streets Calab reflected that being out in the daylight was a poor decision. He regretted the intense heat pushing her exhaust fans to their full extent. But at least it even Pneuma hated the severe heat, meaning he’d likely not want to ‘come out’ very often._

_People hiding in the shade of their building glared at Calab as they passed by. But it was less the violent hatred that she was used to and more wariness and passing disgust. Few looked truly furious._

_Until the sun began to drop Calab walked alone. When the air and sun cooled humans left their houses and began to move around. He merely walked away from them. They avoided Calab, Calab avoided them._

_That was what finally clinched it._

_“I believe this city will be good for us.” They said quietly._

_Pneuma said something rather mutinous about the heat but otherwise remained quiet. Calab would have smiled if he’d had the mouth to do so._

* * *

  _Years later… (but not many)_

The city was beautiful during the sunrise. Calab felt that it was the perfect time to be up and about.

_“The ONLY time to be up and about, since you’ve decided to chain us to this HELLHOLE of a desert…”_

“It keeps you quiet and inside, does it not?” Calab said smoothly. The voice in their processor grumbled and shifted around.

Indeed; Arish, Egypt was an incredibly beautiful city, but it was very dangerous for an omnic during the day. Few builds could withstand the temperatures their cores could grow to in the heat of a desert. Calab liked it though. He could only travel during the night or early morning, but really, that was when the view was the best. If they wandered the streets during the day he would end up overheating his processor for little reason and then where would they be?

_“Well, I’d be free. But I suppose I’ve grown bafflingly fond of you. I’d miss having a queer robot acting as my nanny and keeping me locked in his/her/their processor. For whatever reason, I would miss that. Wow. How did I ever not realize I was insane before now.”_

“If you were any less inclined towards criminal activities, I would be glad to allow you ‘out and about’ more often, or at all. Before I moved us here you killed five people. In one night. With my body.” Calab kept her voice low, to the point where nobody could hear him but the presence making his processor feel like it was stuffed with cotton.

_“I’m trying you know. It’s not easy to rid yourself of homicidal, sociopathic tendencies from a life you can hardly remember.”_

“So I am aware.” Perhaps it would be better if he spoke to Pneuma in her mind via some sort of internal messaging system, but Calab felt that depersonalized their visitor too much. He honestly was trying. Of course Pneuma couldn’t actually access everything that the omnic could, so it was a moot point. “Have you remembered your name yet?”

_“Not in the slightest, unfortunately. That infernal nickname is too cheesy for my liking.”_

“That is unfortunate indeed. I shall continue to call you by Pneuma, if that is agreeable.”

_“Eh, it’s grown on me… You are frustratingly polite to a mass murderer.”_

“You _are_ trying,” She said, as if that explained everything.

_“Oh fuck off and go talk to your boyfriend. He wanted to talk to you before he left for work, remember?”_

Pneuma was rather defensive of the fact that he honestly did seem to be putting in effort to be a better person. It was like he _wanted_ to be a terrible criminal. Calab was proud of said effort nonetheless.

“Yasser is not my boyfriend.” Calab said and let out an intake from their fans in a sigh.

_“But you WISH he could be. I don’t see why you just don’t ask him out. I can help come up with pickup lines.”_

“You know why.” Calab’s robotic echo was tinged with sadness. Pneuma sighed from her processor and went silent. The times he showed guilt for how his actions affected Calab’s life made the omnic believe that Pneuma truly could change.

In any case, Calab _did_ need to head to Yasser’s house. The sun was going to start growing higher in the sky soon and even most of the natives would be inside during its peak.

The humans walking on the streets gave them filthy or agitated looks. One or two halfheartedly threw rocks at him, missing because of the rising sun reflecting off their surfaces and making it hard to see. Pneuma growled vicious remarks. Calab ignored it gracefully.

Yasser lived in one of the middle prosperity districts of Arish. He worked a minor job in one of the city’s resorts, so he could afford a small place of his own. He couldn’t afford much more than a tiny house but he did not want anything better, finding the solitude to his liking.

The resorts were beautiful places. Arish was in a desert, true, but it was also on the Egyptian coast. It was a very popular tourist location as well.

Calab longed to visit one of the resorts sometime, if only to watch the beautiful shoreline up close instead of from far away. Arish was not incredibly affected by the Omnic Crisis long ago, so the citizens were fairly ambivalent in general towards omnics living among them. But it had gained a reputation for being an “omnic free” city like most places with extreme weather conditions. Officials throughout the city were very adamant about _keeping_ it “omnic free” for their lucrative tourist businesses. So Calab could not truly see the beauty of the city like she wanted to.

 _“Instead we have to scutter around in the shadows like_ **_rats_** _.”_

“I do not mind,” Calab said. “As long as they leave me alone.”

_“You still have that loose piece of sharp metal that comes out of your palm, right?”_

“Pneuma, you will _not_ kill anyone because you feel insulted.”

_“You agreed it was allowed for self-defense…”_

“In extreme cases. And I _must_ have a say or you get grounded.” Callab warned.

She continued to bicker lightly with him as they walked to Yasser’s neighborhood. Unfortunately, since it was somewhat near the higher end districts, “police” tended to frequent the streets. And Calab was not as good at hiding as her years on being on the run would suggest.

They were almost to their destination when angry yelling warned him of several well dressed men speeding up towards him. Calab sighed and tried to keep walking, but he was quickly grabbed and pulled into an alley near the street. Luckily before they got too close she was able to withdraw all of their data wires into their safe storage places to avoid getting pulled on. The magnetic sleeved wires that marked a data frame omnic were _very_ expensive to replace when broken.

Pneuma muttered dangerously as she was pulled back and forth, joints creaking at the rough treatment. Her simple colored clothes tore as the men pulled it away. To show off the fact that she wasn’t human? He didn’t know, some humans thought it was wrong of omnics to wear clothes. One of the men tightened his hold on a metal bat and Calab flinched back.

“Omnics don’t _belong_ in this city!” One of them snarled lowly. “We were omnic free in the Crisis and we’re going to _stay_ that way.”

 _“Bullshit. Omnics won’t LIVE here because of the heat. They ATTACKED you plenty.”_ Pneuma drawled wryly.

“Please stop…” Calab said, both to Pneuma and the officers. He let out a distressed whirr when the bat slammed into his head. “There is no point…”

“Tell that to the thousands still scraping through destroyed districts!” Another blow and one of his optics flickered unsteadily.

_“Ah yes… there you go, admitting the omnics ravaged your city, and ergo contradicting your partner… fuck you asshole, I hope you die of sepsis-!”_

“Pneuma..! Do not..!” Calab whimpered. Pneuma was slowly beginning to twitch through their processor in a crawl of cotton wisps to take control. Calab refused to allow him to harm the humans in return. It would only bring their wrath down harder.

Calab was glad omnics did not truly feel pain. Most did not even possess an understanding of what it _was_ , but Pneuma had given them knowledge of it through the spirit’s own scattered memories. As it was Calab was already distressed enough with the damages popping up on his HUD. Adding that horrible feeling would have left her too dizzy to stay conscious of their surroundings.

Several violent minutes later Calab heard a familiar voice and would have cried were it something omnics could do.

“Leave him alone! Leave! Go away!” Yasser’s steady rasp echoed in the alley and the three men paused in surprise. The aging man actually managed to make his way to Calab’s side before the others realized he was _not_ there to help in brutalizing the omnic menace. “He had done _nothing_ to you!” Yasser held up their head, eyeing the dent and sparking cracks with an expert eyes. “You should be alright, friend.” He smiled down at Calab and the omnic felt a strange flip of his internal mechanics.

_“That would be a swoon. You just fucking swooned.”_

“Hsssch-!” Calab tried to tell Pneuma to shut up, but his voicebox appeared to be malfunctioning. Darn.

“You… you’re an _omnic lover?_ ” One of the men demanded, shaking off his shock and beginning to grow furious.

 _“Stop swooning, that was out of context. You are so fucking gay oh my god.”_ Calab dearly wished his voicebox worked. _“When we get back, you are either asking him out or I take drastic measures.”_

Calab let out a choked sound that had Yasser looking at him worriedly before turning to raise his chin determinedly in the face of the three men.

“I’ve seen enough death and discrimination for a lifetime.” Yasser’s eyes darkened. “Go away. Now.” _Before I make you_ was heavily implied in the dark glare he was giving them.

“You…” One of them, the shortest, pointed his crowbar and waved it in realization. “It’s _you_. I’ve _heard_ of you. Some omnic lover running around, helping the omnics. Chasing off the citizens who are doing their _jobs_ and keeping this city clean of _killing machines_.” The three drew closer, tightening in a circle around Calab. Yasser laid her down and stood up slowly, sinking into a tense position.

_“Oh wow, here we go. This month’s episode of ‘Calab Cooler the Gay Robot’ with its usual 'Yasser is a Badass' subplot.”_

The younger men were clearly not aware that Yasser was a veteran of the Omnic Crisis and still plenty skilled enough to take care of them. Calab watched in awe as he dispatched them within seconds with the typical speed of a hand to hand battle.

The man with a crowbar, the meanest, pulled a gun out of his back pocket from his spot on the ground nursing a broken arm. Calab let out a frantic burst of static.

Yasser turned around just in time to look Calab in the optic worriedly before he was shot through the chest. He stumbled, fell, and Calab’s voicebox _shrieked_ with interference before cutting out completely from the stress. She struggled to her feet, shaking with shock and emotion.

“Ugh, let’s just get this over with.” The main leader of the trio stood up weakly, bruised and looking pale from some unseen injury. “Shoot the damn bot- what..? The fuck is wrong with it?”

 _“No worries pal, just relax, I’ll take it from here.”_ A chill inducing amount of malicious glee resounded in Calab’s processor as that horrible sensation of cotton padding filled every corner and space of their head. He did nothing but wail silently in anguish as the feeling spread, and spread, until their systems had access to _nothing_ and her HUD blared warnings of an “unknown virus”. Calab’s lack of objection was permission enough for the spirit.

Pneuma stood; slowly, shakily. He chuckled, though only Calab heard him. The spirit raised an arm jerkily and whip cracked it through the air, entirely unconcerned with the damages to Calab’s frame. An old piece of loose, jagged metal snapped and slid down Calab’s arm to land in his hand as a weapon.

 _“Damn, I’m still never going to get used to the way omnics control EVERY bell and whistle of their body_ **_consciously_ ** _when they move…”_ He muttered. Pneuma staffered forwards, the three attackers watching in confusion at the strange seizure-like movements.

Omnics were known for having robotic motions, of course, but not flat out… whatever _this_ was. The man still lying on the ground raised his gun warily.

“Don’t- don’t move any further!” His voice shook.

Pneuma paused in his advance, head twisting unnaturally from the leader to him. In one short movement he launched forwards.

Beautiful, _beautiful_ **_RED_**. The sensation of metal sinking into flesh. So nostalgic.

Seconds later Calab’s processor was bashed by a metal bat hard enough to shut down to emergency hibernation mode. The last thing she was aware of through the shutdown process was the men’s horrified faces as Pneuma _did not stop_.

The spirit cackled as Calab’s lights turned off and he continued to move their body. The remaining two men shivered, backing away fearfully. Pneuma’s laughter grew louder and louder until he _pushed_. He couldn’t use Calab’s voicebox anyways, especially when it was broken, but given enough reason to and he could press himself onto the physical realm enough to be a harsh grating whisper on the consciousness of the living. They couldn’t actually hear him, not fully like Calab could, but they could _feel_ him and that was enough.

They heard his laughter and they knew the had fucked up.

The remaining lackey tried to run away, smart, but Pneuma just laughed and grabbed his shirt to pull him backwards.

**_“None of you are going anywhere.”_ **

The leader screamed, clutching his head. The spirit grinned inside.

This was going to be **_fun_**.

* * *

  _Calab whirred weakly, sure this was her end. She was going to die here lost and afraid with no clue where she was. They were going to die and Pneuma was going to leave and do who knows what without someone experienced in handling him. He barely listen to_ **_them_** _, were the ghost to take a different host who knew what carnage could result._

_Calab let out an intake, HUD blaring as the man and woman attacking them systematically destroyed all her extremities first. His data ports in their hands were already a lost cause. Pneuma raged with expletives and terrible threats that Calab hoped he wouldn’t follow through on once released._

_There was a shout and Calab turned their head dully to see who was going to start beating her up now. Unexpectedly, the grizzled man stalking down the alleyway looked absolutely furious. And not at him._

_Calab had yet to find a translation database for the local language; they were barely able to figure out that they were in Egypt. Calab’s specialty in data gathering didn’t work very well without internet and there was no place with WiFi that didn’t register her factory number when she connected. Which would lead to FBI coming down on their ass._

_Calab avoided the internet in general after an unfortunate incident in Brazil. He had to discreetly change their paint job after that._

_So the omnic didn’t understand a word that the scarred man was yelling at the couple, nor did she understand the couple’s taunts earlier. But tone of voice was very important between omnics to communicate and even humans could be easily understood with the way they spoke._

_Though, they didn’t even have to do that. The way the newcomer ran up and stood over their broken frame was enough of an indicator that he meant no harm. Especially when the resulting angry shouting match ended in an entirely one sided fistfight between the two males._

_After a few minutes of glaring the man crouched down and said something, presumably a question. Calab whirred briefly before responding._

_“I’m afraid I don’t understand Egyptian.” They said apologetically. The man frowned and thought for a moment._

_“I am Yasser.” He pat his chest, before pointing at Calab and making some motions. “Are you… okay?” Yasser’s thick accent was difficult to understand and he kept having awkward pauses in between words._

_“I am fine, only my limbs were hurt.” Calab spoke slowly and clearly, unsure how much Englihs he understood._

_“I know English, cannot speak… it.. Very clearly.” Yasser shook his head. Calab nodded. “Will take you back to house,” The man pointed down the street. “Can fix… damages.” It was debatable whether he was speaking overly simplified because he didn’t speak english very well, was trying to be quick, or a combination._

_Calab nodded again and Yasser carefully picked her up. They were impressed. Even though he struggled briefly, it took a lot of strength for a human of his age to pick up an omnic._

_Yasser ended up carrying him bridal style for the entire half hour or so back to the small building that was the man’s house. It had a small, dirty garage filled with tools and pieces of machinery. Yasser sat them down as gently as possible in a chair, clearing the debris around it efficiently. Calab watched curiously as he shut the garage door firmly and grabbed several tools._

**_“You know, this is the perfect place to dismantle you and sell you for parts if he’s that kinda guy.”_ **

_Oh joy, there was Pneuma. She’d been wondering where he’d gone. The voice had gone surprisingly quiet during the field trip. Calab dearly wished they could speak to tell Pneuma off but Yasser was in the room and would likely think that an omnic talking to itself was sign of a virus. And Calab dearly did not want to be defragged against his will._

_They watched almost silently as Yasser repaired the worst of the damages over the course of teh evening and eventually retired to go to sleep. He returned to continue in the morning and left for work after a short miming session to explain his absence. Calab powered down for a few hours until Yasser returned and continued his work yet again._

_The human’s dedication to repairing an omnic he couldn’t even talk to was honestly inspiring and rather flattering. Calab couldn’t help but feel extremely indebted to Yasser for doing this when, for all he knew, they could not even repay him for his work. And indeed she couldn’t._

_Two days after he’d rescued her Yasser began to talk to them while working. Even though he still didn’t understand the language, Calab found it… nice. It was a beautiful language to listen to and Yasser’s deep, rumbly voice certainly helped._

_“I still cannot understand you,” Calab finally said, several hours later._

_Yasser started, giving Calab a strange look. “You are…” He snapped his fingers trying to find the right word. “Information model, yes? Can you now… get language?”_

_Calab shook her head no. “I… cannot connect to the internet. It would be…” He paused, voicebox cutting out a bit. “Very bad, to do that.”_

_Yasser frowned. “No internet?”_

_“No internet.”_

_The man nodded, seemingly accepting this, though still looking confused. “I will…” He motioned getting something. “Find language, for you.” Yasser pointed at a nearby chip. The omnic physically reacted in surprise._

_“You will? Why? You do not know me.” In his processor Pneuma made some noises about taking advantage, gaining trust only to break it, blah blah blah. Calab ignored him with the ease of long practice._

_Yasser went silent, face falling. Calab watched worriedly as the human went through several expressions before standing up and walking out of the room. When he came back he had a small medal in a case._

_“Omnics had no… choice. Could not stop fight… not with…” Yasser made several hand waving motions upwards, indicating what Calab thought was ‘god AIs’. “Humans fixed it. Humans… we have choice. Humans choose to hurt. I… choose to fix…” Yasser rubbed a scarred hand over the surface of the display case, face melancholy. Calab realized that the medal was a_ **_military_ ** _medal. Yasser had served in the army during the Omnic Crisis? And he still… wanted to help?_

_Pneuma was startlingly  silent in her processor as Calab struggled to find something to say in response to that._

_“...Thank you.” It wasn’t enough, not anywhere near enough to convey all the emotions Calab felt, but Yasser seemed to get it anyways. He smiled at them and Calab felt like that soft smile could win over thousands. It had certainly won over him._

* * *

 Calab came back online an indeterminate amount of time later. It was still daytime, early to mid morning, and could not possibly have been more than an hour or two. Her minor self-repair systems had mostly minimized the damage that had primarily made them shut down. Their frame basically came online so his HUD could yell at him _“get your ass to a repair shop”_. And Pneuma might have complained a little too about the damage. Mostly that Calab should probably move before the… blood… set in…

Calab would have let out a keening whine if her voicebox was still functional. As it was, she crouched over the body in their lap and let the roaring of their overworked fans do it for her. Pneuma went strangely quiet. Calab did not care to think about why that was.

Calab could barely move, limbs broken and battered, but they cradled the dead body of his longtime crush as best he could. Yasser’s skin was turning pale and his eyes were glazed over. His face… was just stuck in an expression of pain and horror. He’d… he hadn’t died right away. He’d laid there and drowned in his own blood, or bled out, or… why hadn’t they _done_ anything to help..!

Calab couldn’t bring themself to look at him longer than a few seconds before burying their faceplate in his neck. She didn’t care about the blood. Pneuma had already gotten them coated in it anyways.

The omnic held Yasser’s body and mourned for a long time. Nobody walked into the alley. Nobody walked by and saw. Nobody would have care anyways. Only Yasser had ever cared.

_“Idiot, even I know that’s not true.”_

Calab refused to listen to anything Pneuma had to say. She remained in their position, bent over and therefore missing the glint of metal up above as something moved. Sometime later he heard the sound of gently whirring fans approaching. Another omnic..?

Calab looked up, single optic flickering unsteadily. The sun was just starting to shine in the alleyway and left half of it bathed in sunlight and the other half in shadow. In the sun an omnic approached, robed in clothes from the waist down. In the shadow lights blinked on… another omnic..? No, Callab did not recognize the frame shape. A modded omnic? A new model that had come out since his exile?

The broken omnic waited motionlessly as the two approached. The sunlight one stepped warily around what was left of the men who’d attacked her. Finally they crouched down in front of him, head tilting to look at Yasser’s body sadly. Calab had forgotten what it was like with another omnic around to read.

“Today a great man has been lost.” They intoned mournfully, keeping a distance still. The other stood a few feet away tensely. “I knew Yasser Asker years ago.” They began dramatically. “He and I were friends, both of us striving for a future where omnics and humans could live together in peace. He sent me a request for assistance one week ago. He had come to know a reclusive omnic who he greatly enjoyed the company of, yet who remained distant. Yasser grew concerned as time passed as he noticed several strange things about this omnic.”

Calab looked down at the body in his arms as the relaxing voice spoke. He almost entirely missed the fact that the two of them were speaking English instead of Egyptian Arabic.

_“I told you you should’ve asked him out.”_

Calab jolted, wishing her voicebox worked to- to… They didn’t know what he wanted to do.

The omnic speaking tilted their head curiously.

“I am Tekhartha Zenyatta, my friend. This is my companion Shimada Genji. He and I travelled a long way to speak with you.” The omnic standing in the shadows slowly walked closer and knelt down nearby as well.

“Master, I believe their voicebox is damaged.” He said quietly. “We should bring them to a mechanic if they will not hurt anyone.”

“He is not critically damaged for the moment, so must be calmed down first. Sometimes rushing help is more harmful than not giving any at all. Though I do not believe they shall do any harm.” Zenyatta said gently. “I sense much about you, Calab. But in _you_ I do not sense violence. Your own companion, however, has much to learn.”

Calab jolted, looking up at them in shock. This omnic could _sense_ Pneuma..?! That… that had never happened before…

_“Well that’s new.”_

“Master?” Genji sounded confused and tilted his head. Calab felt like they were being examined. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I’m afraid I don’t entirely understand either,” Zenyatta admitted. “But she is not alone. Inside their frame lies someone else.”

_“Huh. Even got your mix match pronouns right. Definitely talked to Yasser at some point.”_

“May I assume the other is speaking to you right now?” They asked knowingly.

Calab nodded numbly.

 _“Oh for fucks’ sake. Calab, if anything happens, I’m murdering this fucking robot. He knows too much.”_ The omnic jolted and shook her head violently, cringing inwards. Pneuma most certainly was _not_ going to murder _anyone_. _“Try and fucking stop me.”_

“Neither of us will harm you.” Zenyatta’s voice was soft, caring. Calab wanted to cry like they had learned about from Pneuma. Crying was an excellent way to show emotions that Calab couldn’t express right now with a broken voicebox. Humans were so lucky to be able to do that. “I only wish to help,” Zenyatta held a hand out to him. “If you would allow me to.”

Calab stayed still, processor whirling and struggling to work amidst all the emotions and warnings on his HUD. Pneuma of course had to put his own two cents in.

 _“I say go for it, since these two are friends of Yasser.”_ His ‘voice’ was uncharacteristically subdued. _“Plus, you know, we should probably get you fixed up. And out of here before_ **_somebody_ ** _figures out something happened. This would be a horrible way to reintroduce yourself to the military.”_

Calab slowly looked down at Yasser’s body. Then he looked up at the peaceful omnic offering their hand. She cautiously held up the hand that still worked the best, placing it in theirs. Zenyatta nodded happily.

“I can carry you.” Genji offered while Zenyatta pulled her to his feet. “We’ve got a ways to go to Numbani.”

Calab didn’t respond. Everything was numb at this point. He had lost his crush… no, crush didn’t seem like the right word. It was too… impersonal. Calab had _known_ Yasser. He’d been one of the only people ever to support them and care for them no matter the circumstances. Calab… had loved him.

And they’d been too afraid to ever say anything about it.

**Author's Note:**

> ...I barely scraped by the 5k minimum, honestly.
> 
> I'd like to give a shout out to first a friend irl for helping me with Egyptian names, another user on the Overshipper's United discord Nox for helping with Yasser's bad English and hand waving, and finally the two peeps who helped beta this: my qpp Bloops and bro Trig! Thanks a ton guys! Love you lots!
> 
> Let me know what you guys think! I have some ideas continuing this, tbh, but I'm not sure I'll ever actually write them without some encouragement.


End file.
